ROLF Harris has denied he spoke to his daughter Bindi about her evidence in court as he faces 12 counts of indecent assault — including allegedly abusing one of her friends when they were 13-year-old school girls.

In a tense afternoon in the witness box, the 84-year-old entertainer also admitted he didn’t tell detectives the whole truth in his police statement because he felt embarrassed to do so in front of two “very attractive young ladies” in the room.

Harris was being cross-examined by prosecutor Sasha Wass QC and made various concessions throughout his second day in the witness box including agreeing that he was pretty good at disguising his “dark side”.

But that dark side, he said, was having extramarital affairs and not indecently assaulting schoolgirls or grooming them for sex abuse.

“In moral terms I have not been the whitest of white and pure,” he told the court of the alleged affairs.

No discussion ... Rolf Harris says he didn’t speak to daughter Bindi about her evidence in his indecent assault case. Picture: Will OliverSource:AFP

But while he said he hadn’t told police the whole truth about his sexual dalliances with the friend of Bindi, he had not put Bindi up to lying about what she may have known or been told about the alleged assaults.

The court heard on legal advice Harris had declined to be interviewed by police but later agreed to provide a written statement. That statement conceded he’d had two sexual consensual encounters with the woman who was alleging she was assaulted at 13 in 1979 during a family holiday but Harris said the sexual relations didn’t start until she was 18.

When asked why he didn’t tell police the truth about the fact that he now admits there were eight sexual encounters with the woman — including oral sex in a laneway near his house, in Bindi’s house and on the motorway while driving to London — he said he was embarrassed.

“There were these two very attractive young ladies in the lawyers chambers and I was just too embarrassed to say anything,” he told the court saying his lawyers helped prepare his statement.

Ms Wass rubbished that claim and pushed him repeatedly on the point, to which he admitted the omission was deliberate and said: “I don’t know how we decide what we do or say in this world”.

On trial ... Harris has been charged with 12 counts of indecent assault. Picture: Ben StansallSource:AFP

She then asked him what he had told his family when he was first spoken to by police about being a suspect in a child abuse case and he said he could not recall.

Ms Wass put it to Harris that he told his wife Alwen and Bindi and they received legal advice that he paid for from another law firm before being interviewed by police.

He said he didn’t know his family had spoken to police and he had “absolutely no idea” who was paying their legal fees in relation to his case.

His defence counsel Sonia Woodley QC suddenly stood and asked Judge Nigel Sweeney whether the court should have a short break. The judge said he didn’t like to interrupt the prosecution but Ms Wass said it was okay.

Show of support ... Harris arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London with his wife Alwen Hughes and daughter Bindi. Picture: Ben StansallSource:AFP

After the break she continued her grilling of Harris again, asking him what he had told Bindi — to which he replied he couldn’t recall.

Ms Wass reminded Harris that the alleged victim told the court that she had told Bindi she had been abused at 13 by him — a claim Bindi apparently does not agree with, although Harris said she did know about the consensual affair when the alleged victim was older and that Bindi smashed two of his paintings in fury.

“Have you put her up to it?” Ms Wass asked finally, in relation to Bindi now being a defence witness for her father.

“No, no discussion at all,” he replied.

Ms Wass said how could it be they have never discussed the case as each day they do that slow walk in and out of court that Harris admitted was a show of support for the TV cameras.

“Bindi has been telling lies,” Ms Wass said as Ms Woodley objected and accused the prosecutor of getting carried away.

Harris is to take the stand again today with Bindi Harris expected to give evidence for her father in coming days.